The present invention relates to therapeutic beds. More particularly, the invention relates to a therapeutic bed of the type comprising a base frame, a patient support platform rotatably supported by the base frame, and a pair of longitudinally extending side members for the patient support platform to support and retain a patient on the platform.
Therapeutic beds are used for patients who are rendered immobile by virtue of accident or disease and become victims of the serious complications of immobility such as urinary tract stone formation, pneumonia, atelectasis, venous thrombosis, decubitus, muscular wasting, bone decalcification and bed sores. In an effort to overcome these problems such therapeutic beds often have a patient support platform which is mounted for controlled oscillation within a bed frame relative to a bed support on which the bed frame is mounted. Generally speaking, such a bed has lateral supports for a patient lying on the platform which are provided by upstanding side members detachably secured to the platform.
One of the major problems associated with therapeutic beds is that the side members are difficult to detach, get in the way of the doctor and nurse trying to treat the patient and are in other ways cumbersome. It is known to have various arrangements for storing such side members when not in use. However, such known arrangements are not generally satisfactory.
In some cases the side members are adjustably mounted and require re-setting to accommodate a particular patient every time they are removed. Thus, there is a risk that they may be incorrectly reset with consequent discomfort to a patient, or more seriously, not correctly set to restrain a patient's movement correctly.
The present invention is directed towards providing an improved construction of hospital bed which will overcome these and other problems.